1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates broadly to devices and methods for covering cables, rods, wires, cords or like strands with flexible tubing. More particularly, it concerns hand tools that permit protective coverings to be easily positioned over cables or other strands by application of longitudinally slit, flexible tubing around the strands.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are numerous situations in which it is desirable to apply a tubular covering around a cable or other strand to protect the strand and/or to prevent the strand from injuring objects that may come into contact therewith. By way of example, it is common practice to cover the cable shrouds of sailboat riggings with slit, plastic covers to mitigate damage to sails that come into contact with the shrouds in use of the sailboat. Also, it is conventional to protect mooring, anchoring and towing lines against chafing by tubular coverings in the portions that will be subject to chafing action.
A common method of providing protective coverings to strands is to apply a slit tube by hand onto the strand by spreading apart the slit in the tube and forcing the strand into the parted slit. Such hand operations are invariably tedious and time consuming. Hence, various devices and schemes have been disclosed for improving upon such manual strand covering operations. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,371 discloses methods in which protective covering on cords and ropes are provided by spiral-like wrappings of plastic or rubber strips. A variation of such spiral wrapping for the application of insulation on tubes, pipes and other conduits is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,814.
In contrast to spiral such wrapping techniques, the present invention concerns operations in which covering tubes that have an essentially straight, longitudinal slit therein are applied to cables, cords, ropes, wires, rods and like filamentous items that are collectively referred to herein as strands.
It is also well known to apply protective sheaths, tubular coverings, etc. to strands in production operations, often operated in continuous manner, using wrapping, winding and other forms of apparatus usually of relatively complex construction, e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,817. The present invention is contrasted to such methods and apparatus by being concerned with relatively simple hand tools that are used in piece-work fashion to apply tubular coverings to individual portions of strands, often fixed in position on location, e.g., the cable shrouds of a sailboat.
In spite of the numerous disclosures of various types of strand coating methods and devices as briefly mentioned above, there exists a need for improvements in hand tools for applying tubular coverings to strands and in methods of conducting such applications.